A Harsh Reality
by Prism Blaze
Summary: The powerful Network decides that Friendship is Magic has missed its target demographic and needs to be stopped. They order the cast to be 'retired', but Princess Luna does something drastic to save them. Wiped of her memories of Equestria, one of the cast begins to remember and dedicate herself to finding her friends and finding their long, lost, and forgotten home.
1. Chapter 1 - Friendship is Cancelled

Twilight Sparkle took a deep breath as she sat in the library with her five best friends, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and her baby dragon assistant Spike. "Spike," she began, looking over to him with a smile. "Take a letter, please."

Spike whipped out a long piece of parchment and a quill from seemingly nowhere and nodded with a serious expression on his face. "Ready, Twilight!"

The purple unicorn licked her lips and took another deep breath as she began to dictate with perfect enunciation as she always did. As she spoke, she got up and paced around the room. "Dearest Princess Celestia. Younger siblings, and indeed, younger ponies as a whole, look up to us for a lot. They look up to us as role models on how to behave, to learn new things, or perhaps as inspiration on what to be when they're older." As she spoke the last part, she smiled at the three young fillies. Sweetie Belle sat beside Rarity, Applebloom beside Applejack, and Scootaloo next to Rainbow Dash. "Sometimes it can feel like they're being a bother and the task of teaching too gargantuan to undertake, but with a little patience and understanding it can be simple. After all, everypony here was once a filly looking up to somepony too." She then sat down with them, with an accomplished smile on her face. "Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle. Get all that?"

Spike was scribbling something on the parchment, his head cocked to the side. He stuck his tongue out a little in concentration, looking more than a little bewildered. "Garg- Garan- Uh..."

Twilight, blushed a little, seeming to have used to large a word for the young dragon once again. "Difficult?"

Spike's expression did not change in the slightest. "Diff...?"

This time, Twilight giggled. "Just write down 'hard'." She giggled once more, joined by the others in the room as they had a laugh at poor Spike's expense.

* * *

"Cut! Check the gate, please!" A voice came from seemingly nowhere and echoed throughout the library. After a few moments of pause, a well dressed mustard stallion walked into the library with a clapperboard as a cutie mark. "The gate is clean! Alright, that's a wrap for this episode! Great work, everypony!" Twilight and her companions seemed to relax as he approached. "Great delivery on the letter as always, Ms. Sparkle. Princess Celestia is waiting for you all outside."

More ponies flooded into the library as he spoke, moving bookshelves and revealing lighting rigs and cabling. They began to disassemble the lights and roll up the cables onto large spools. Yet others began to move furniture around and clean everything they could.

Twilight watched them for a moment and then nodded at his words with a smile. "Thank you. Well, lets go, girls. It's getting very noisy in here very fast." She rose and led the way out of the library with her friends, Spike, and the Crusaders in tow. As promised, Princess Celestia was outside waiting for them.

Celestia waved a hoof, letting them know that they did not need to bow. "Fantastic show today, everpony. I really like the message this episode had and I think it will really resonate with the viewing audience."

Twilight Sparkle smiled broadly, glad to have the Princess' praise as always. "Thank you, Princess Celestia. That means a lot to me."

Rarity nodded with that somewhat snooty smile she always wore, even if she didn't mean it as such. "I'm just glad this episode featured all of us. It's been a while since we were all able to work together on one."

"Hear, hear!" Applejack nodded in agreement, tipping her Stetson hat back a little with that country grin she was known for. "Though we do see a mighty lot of each other at th' house, it's nice ta' work t'gether too."

Princess Celestia chuckled warmly at their comments. "Well, that's all up to the writers and the producers to decide, but I'll see if I can't drop a hint or two for future episodes." She looked at everpony gathered there. "Speaking of the house, is everypony ready to head back there now? With that action sequence, it was a fifteen hour day and I'm sure you're all very tired."

Everypony nodded quickly and it was punctuated by a loud yawn from Applebloom. "Mah pillow is callin' mah name fer' sure, Princess!"

Celestia chuckled once more and nodded. "Alright, everypony, you know the drill. Gather around closely and hold on tightly!"

Everypony circled around the tall Princess and joined hooves, holding on tightly just as instructed. Celestia closed her eyes and took a deep breath, her horn beginning to glow. The glow became brighter and brighter and just when it was more brilliant than the brightest star, there was an even more vivid flash and everypony had vanished.

Somewhere else, the flash was replicated as, with an audible pop, everypony had rematerialized in the new location. They were on the walkway that led to a large mansion style home with exquisite landscaping and a ton of wide open land around it. Other than that, however, nothing else seemed to be around. The walkway led to a dirt road that winded around the flat badlands the house was built upon. There were no other buildings or structures as far as the eye could see.

Even the hyper-studeous Twilight Sparkle had no idea of where they were when they came to this house. Ever since they could remember, all they knew was this house and the few locations in Equestria in which the filming took them. That, still, did not stop her from trying to discover their location. The stars did not match anything on her charts, however. It was like they were on some alien world.

"Urf..." Rarity mumbled, staggering on her hooves a bit as she felt as if the world were spinning a thousand times as fast. "I'm not sure I will ever get used to that sensation."

Rainbow Dash flew around her a few times, seemingly unfazed in the slightest. "Horseapples. You just need to get Twilight to give you those wings back and do some flying!" She zipped around her a few more times, only making her even more disorientated. "That stuff is nothing compared the the g-forces I can pull off!"

Rarity had to close her eyes to prevent getting sick and began to show a little irritation and curtness in her voice. "Yes, well, _some_ of us prefer to keep our hooves firmly planted on the ground, Rainbow Dash." The white unicorn fussed, causing Rainbow Dash to land and droop her head with a sigh.

"Aww, come on~!" Pinkie Pie sang in. "I love being dizzy! It makes me feel siiiiIIIiiiiiIIIIiiiiIIiiill lllLLLllly...!" she said as she spun around on her hind hooves until she fell down in a fit of giggles.

Everypony there shook their heads and rolled their eyes. Pinkie Pie was just being Pinkie Pie as always, but at least she never failed to get rid of a tense mood.

Applejack walked up to Rainbow Dash and put a hoof around her. "Aw, don't ya sweat it, sugarcube. Flyin' just ain't fer' everypony. Buck up, and besides, you still owe me another round on that fancy Ponystation 3 and I intend to collect. What say you to some Red Dead Redemption? Y'all kin' try ta' keep up with me. Unless yer' scared that is." The orange earth pony then walked calmly right past Rainbow Dash and into the house.

Dash was momentarily stunned by the challenge. "Afraid? Ha! You kidding? There's nothing that walks, crawls, flies or swims that I'm afraid of! Though... hey, wait! That game's not fair!" she complained as she trotted into the house behind her. "That game is, like, normal life on your farm, isn't it?" she teased.

"Come on!" an overly excited Scootaloo shouted to her fellow Crusaders. "This I _have_ to see! Let's go, Sweetie Belle! Leave Applebloom to go sleep. I mean, it's not like Applejack stood a chance against Rainbow Dash anyway, right?" They both giggled and sprinted into the house, knowing they're taunt would work.

"Hey!" Applebloom objected. "Ah'm not that tii-iii-iiired!" she yawned wide in mid-word. "Ah was just kiddin'! An' mah big sis will so win! Hey, wait up!" Applebloom ran after her friends to go cheer on Applejack.

"Ooo! Ooo! Ooo! That sounds like a party~! And where there's a party, there's Pinkie~! Come on, Rarity, let's go prepare some snacks!" Pinkie Pie bounced around the remaining ponies a few times before bounding past them and into the house.

Rarity merely shrugged and followed her inside, having nothing better to do. "Well, it will be ever so nice to spend some time with Sweetie Belle as well..."

Twilight chuckled and shook her head a little at her friends. They were certainly an interesting bunch. She turned and bowed her head to Celestia. "I think I will go and read some in the study before bed. Good night, Princess."

Celestia smiled and watched her go. "Good night, Twilight Sparkle. Great job today, once again."

Now that they were alone, Fluttershy went ever so slowly up to the Princess, looking more than a little shy, but also that she had something on her mind. "Um... Princess...?" she asked, barely above a whisper.

"Yes? What is it, my dear?" Celestia asked, craning her long neck down to hear better in a tender way, but still causing the nervous Pegasus to shrink away a little.

Fluttershy wanted to run then, but she swallowed hard and stood her ground. She just had to ask this. "Um... well... I was thinking... I really like it in Ponyville... and I know the others do too... so I was wondering... if you think it's alright... that maybe... one day we could live there... for good?" It took her a while, but she finally got her thoughts all out in the open. She then sat back and looked like she was dreading the answer.

Celestia stood up straight again and seemed a little bothered by the request, but put on a smile nonetheless. "Well... we'll see, Fluttershy. Ponyville and all of Equestria is, well, different."

Fluttershy nodded. Oddly, she was more relieved at having gotten this negative answer. It was the one she had honestly mentally prepared for. "I know. I just wanted to ask is all." She moved slowly towards the house, stopping in the doorway. "Goodnight, Princess." she smiled before entering and closing the door behind her.

Celestia stood and stared at the closed door for a few moments before turning away and hanging her head with a sigh. "That's not up to me, my little ponies." she muttered to herself as she strolled away from the house toward the dirt road. "That's up to the network." Suddenly a ringing sound was heard from the saddlebag she wore. "Oh, speak of the devil."

She reached into her bags, and grabbed a headset with her teeth. She flipped it high into the air, having it land perfectly on her head. "Hello? Yes, this is she." She began to speak to the person or persons on the other end. "Uh huh, well I thought it was a good episode with a good..." there was a pause and Celestia got a very stunned look on her face. "Wait... wait hold on... just what are you saying?"

"What do you mean 'cancelled'?!"


	2. Chapter 2 - Dawn and Dusk

"What do you mean 'cancelled'?!"

"Wrong demographic my shapely pale flank! It's popular, isn't it? There's conventions and everything!" Celestia seemed apocalyptically angry, but quickly seemed to calm into a quiet state of acceptance. She sighed softly. "No, no, that isn't necessary. Yes, I'm well aware of who pays the bills and allows Equestria to exist." There was another pause. "It'll be done overnight tonight. I will see to it. Bye."

Celestia threw her headset off into the distance with her magic and a growl as the caller hung up. She sat down right where she was on the road and looked up at the moon in the night sky, lost in her own thoughts momentarily. She stood and looked back at the house behind her with heavy sigh before her horn glowed and she teleported away.

"Luna! We have a huge problem." She boomed as she reappeared in Canterlot Castle. She appeared in what looked like an audio/video room with dozens of monitors and a few computers.

"Holy-!" Luna gasped in surprise, nearly falling off the stool she was perched on. "Stop teleporting right beside me! You take a century off my life every time you do that!" she made a pouty face and put a hoof on her heart as she caught her breath. Her expression then brightened suddenly and she laughed. "Check this out. I call it 'The CMC Discover Rule 34'." She tapped the monitor of the computer she was at with her hoof. A still image of the Cutie Mark Crusaders looking at a computer screen with various levels of shock was shown. "Great, huh? I was about to upload it to Ponychan."

Celestia waved a hoof with an annoyed noise, not in the mood for that at the moment. "Luna, they pulled the plug." she said simply. "The network cancelled the show."

This time Luna did fall off her stool, landing on her back with a solid thud. She winced and got to her hooves again, stretching her wings out to make sure they were fine. "What? You can't be serious! It's popular, right? I mean it even has conventions and everything!"

"That's what I said!" Celestia growled as she sat down at the bank of television monitors that seemed to be hooked up to cameras within the cast house. "But they told me that it's not popular with the demographic they wanted, so they're going to reboot the show."

Luna hung her head, staring at the desk in front of her. "That's a load of horseapples. What are they replacing it with?"

"They're going to bring Posey, Gusty, Fizzy and the others out of retirement." The sun princess muttered as she looked over the happenings on the monitors. Rarity and Pinkie Pie were cooking up a storm in the kitchen, while the main centre of action seemed focused in the game room and the battle between Rainbow Dash and Applejack.

Luna couldn't help but snort a laugh at that. "Yeah, because that worked out so great the first time with them. That was cancelled after, what, two seasons?" That god a nod from her sister, but she decided her sarcastic commentary could not end there. "Let me see if I can remember the reason for that. Hmm. What could it have been? Oh yeah, epic lameness!"

"Well, regardless, it seems they have made their decision on this. It's to have the same fate." Celestia turned to look at Twilight Sparkle reading happily on her bed and felt her heart tighten. Twilight had become a true friend to her, just as she was made out to be on the show.

The dark princess scoffed once more. "But this show is awesome! They should just re-market it to the new demographic! They should embrace the new popularity, not run away screaming like an extra in those Japanese monster movies." She glanced up at her screen capture of the Cutie Mark Crusaders and sighed, before pointing at Celestia. "And I'm not just saying all this because I've gotten screen time for a change in this show. You know that."

Celestia nodded and sighed heavily, finally pulling her eyes off of the screens. "I know, sister, and that's not up to us. You know that, Luna. The network-"

"I know, I know." Luna cut her off with a stern tone. "You don't have to remind me."

There was a long silence between the two sisters with Celestia finally standing and beginning to walk around the room a little. "Dear sister, you and I have always been Yin and Yang to each other. Sun and moon, light and darkness, the beginning and the end." She turned to look at Luna with a genuine regretful look on her expression. "I created these ponies with my magic, it's what I do. The network, they don't even want to keep them around for the odd home movie release. They want them more than swept under the rug." She paused again, thinking of just how to say what she needed to say. "That means for the first time, Luna, you need to un-create them."

Luna's eyes widened at her sister's words. "Un-create, you mean..." she began, stumbling over her speech in shock. "You mean kill them! Don't you?!"

Princess Celestia paced around the room angrily and with more than a little frustration in her body language and tone. "That's a harsh term for it. It's just un-creating them with the opposite type of magic that I used to make them."

"The result is the same." Luna responded flatly. "Removing them from existence."

"What other choice do we have!?" Celestia shouted angrily. "We can't simply leave them be, or place them in the real world! Pegasi, Unicorns, talking ponies? Can you fathom what that would cause? They were created for the sole purpose of this show, they've never even seen the outside world. No one knows they are here, or knows of the house. No one will know." She said, sounding like she was trying to justify it to herself more than to Luna.

"But we will. We will know. And we will have to live with it. Can you truly deal with making such a decision in your heart?" Luna asked softly.

"I've already made it, sister. If we do not do as the network asks of us, they may very well pull the plug on the whole franchise. Ponyville, Canterlot, all of Equestria and the world as we know it could be gone. Is the risk of that really worth these group of ponies?" She looked back toward the monitors, seeing Pinkie Pie walking into the game room with a tray overflowing with snacks. "The network is just too powerful. I'm sorry, Luna." She turned sharply and moved to the door. She needed to get away form this now if she were to let it happen.

Luna stared at the ground in front of her for a few seconds, the ping of guilt already burning her. "When?"

"Tonight." Celestia responded quickly.

"Should we at least tell them?" the younger sister asked almost pitifully.

"And what would that accomplish, Luna? It would just cause distress and panic. Let them experience the remaining time they have in peace and calm." she then moved to leave once more.

"Celestia!" Luna called after her, desperation in her voice, and moving after her for a few hoofsteps. "There has to be another way!"

"If you can find another way that will still satisfy the network, then by all means." Celestia left then, and walked down the corridor in silence to her room.

Luna sat down heavily on her stool once more, feeling like she might be sick. "How can they ask me to do this, like... like it's my job?" she asked herself weakly. She blinked out a tear and let out a shaky breath as she looked back up at the screens, seeing the ponies go about their evening. "If I can find another way..." she reminded herself of her sister's words, beginning to think hard of a way, any other way to do what the network wanted.

She sat and watched the ponies go about their lives for hours. She watched the epic battle between Rainbow Dash and Applejack come to a high point and then finally end. The Cutie Mark Crusaders had gone to their clubroom and had fallen asleep in their beanbag chairs in the middle of planning their next attempts at getting their cutie marks. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Applejack had all gone to bed, while Rarity was having a well needed soak in the hot springs. The only other ponies still awake were Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash who happened to be roommates. Twilight read at her desk and made the occasional note on some paper with her magic. Rainbow Dash, meanwhile, lay on her back on her bed and listened to music on large studio style headphones as to not disturb the studious unicorn next to her.

It hadn't worked. Luna, if anything, felt even more miserable about what she needed to do now. Her head hung low as if she had been scolded, and she swallowed hard, wincing at the pit she felt in her stomach. Finally, she picked her head up with a heavy sigh. "Alright, it is time." she allowed herself one last glance at the monitors. "This is the best that I could come up with. Please forgive me, girls." Luna closed her eyes and began to concentrate as she always did when she was casting a difficult spell. Her horn began to glow brighter and brighter and as she opened her eyes, they were like shimmering stars. The power increased so much that the princess levitated off of her chair, and finally released a great magical burst.


End file.
